Ideuhs are incipient thoughts

Television

July 23, 2010

As I anticipate the new season of Mad Men, I recall one of my favorite scenes from a past episode, in which Don Draper presents his idea for the naming of a Kodak slide projector.

Those were the days before PowerPoint. Ad agencies didn't have computers
to make presentations on. They had their clients flip through reports
around the conference table. Or they mounted their presentations on
large boards and propped them on an easel. Or they printed out
transparencies and showed them on an overhead projector. Or perhaps they
used slide projectors.

Normally, Don Draper doesn't even make presentations; he simply presents. He creates an atmosphere through his words and voice and then ... unveils the idea. With his cool composure and controlled creativity, Don Draper presents the
fictionalized ideal of a persuasive salesman that many advertising
people I know today aspire to emulate. Perhaps we think: That's the way advertising should be - about the power of an idea, pure and unencumbered by too many props, too many pages of PowerPoint.

In this episode, however, Don Draper does use a prop. He presents using the slide projector he's been asked to name. And in doing so he creates one of those magical moments in the conference room that most of us only dream of. See the episode here.

Where does this lead? Well, aside from looking forward to the season premiere of Mad Men, it makes me think how much more powerful our presentations might be if we looked at PowerPoint more as a slide-show tool than a medium for projecting words on the wall. Why not simply say what we mean, and simply project some images as a backdrop? Or perhaps, as Don Draper normally does, don't show anything at all, until it's time to withdraw the veil...